What cancer experts wish you knew

Apply lotion before performing a breast self exam

Doing so makes it easier to feel subtle changes. Self exam how-to Keep your fingers flat and close together and gently probe each breast by moving your fingers in circles closer to the nipple, starting at the underarm and progressing down to the bra line, across to the sternum and up to the clavicle; repeat on the other breast.

Skip the graveyard shift

Women who work nights tend to sleep while the sun’s up and get too little shut-eye—bad news because darkness during sleep signals the brain to produce melatonin, a sleep-regulating hormone shown to slow the growth of breast cancer cells. Whatever your routine, aim to get seven hours of sleep in a dark room.

—Emerson Smith, Ph.D., clinical research associate professor of medicine at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia.

Care for your body even if you don’t love it

Women who were dissatisfied with their appearance were 59 percent less likely to have gotten a mammogram in the past year than those who loved their looks and 61 percent less likely to have had a Pap smear, according to a survey by the National Women’s Health Resource Center. Protect the only body you have by getting key screenings.

—Elizabeth Battaglino Cahill, R.N., executive director of NWHRC.

Flee from freeways

Carcinogen levels from vehicle-exhaust toxins even a mile from the highway are more than 100 times higher than in a natural setting.